SVARTE SKOGER

Svarte Skoger is a compilation album by Norwegian black metal act Manes which was released in 2006 by Kyrck Productions and limited to 1000 copies. The album consists of all songs from the three demo cassette tapes by Manes; Maanens Natt (1993), Ned i Stillheten (1994) and Til Kongens Grav de Døde Vandrer (1995). In addition to the demo tracks there are also two pre-Manes tracks included on Svarte Skoger. A track from 1991 by Perifa and one track from 1992 by Obscuro. Perifa changed name to Obscuro who changed name to Manes.

The music on this compilation album is old school Norwegian black metal. There´s a very noisy and lo-fi sound quality throughtout the whole album makes this an almost unbearable ordeal for me personally. I enjoy raw and filthy productions but the sound on these tracks totally lack charm and I simply draw the line when I can´t hear what´s going on even when I really consentrate.

After listening through the three demos which are pretty awful IMO we´re then treated with two even more badly produced and lo-fi songs by the pre-Manes bands Perifa and Obscuro.

I´m probably not the right person to review this compilation because I can´t find one positive thing to say about it. Maybe fans of old school Norwegian black metal can find the charm here but it´s totally lost on me. 1 star and I´m being nice.